On May 5 1870, O’Connell-born priest Samuel Edward Marsden became the first Australian-born Bishop when he was welcomed and installed as the Bishop of the new Anglican Diocese.
At that time the diocese spanned the length of NSW, from the Queensland border to the Riverina in the south.
Today it still covers an area of 215,000 square kilometres, or the equivalent of Great Britain.
The former rector of Kelso Samuel Marsden (great grandson of Bishop Marsden), speaking about his namesake said; “In thinking of the person, Samuel Marsden, rather than the Bishop, it’s been intriguing for me to think of him as being born and brought up at O’Connell Plains, coming to school here in Bathurst and then at a very early age, moving to the UK to continue his education, to be ordained, and then to minister in the tiny little hamlet of Bengeworth on the River Avon.”